


this broken day will come and go

by Sway



Category: Lucifer (TV)
Genre: Chloe Decker Finds Out, F/M, possible spoilers for the season finale
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-05-22
Updated: 2017-05-22
Packaged: 2018-11-03 21:14:57
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,778
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10975470
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Sway/pseuds/Sway
Summary: The Gates of Heaven open in the empty cabin of Lucifer's private elevator.High on irony. Low on surprise.Whatissurprising and even more confusing is how they all ended up here. Mum. Amenadiel. Lucifer. The detective.





	this broken day will come and go

**Author's Note:**

> I started this after watching "deceptive little parasite and it's basically my "if I were to write the finale"-piece.
> 
> Most of it was written on the phone and it's not beta'd. My apologies.
> 
> The title is from "something real" by Soil.

The Gates of Heaven open in the empty cabin of Lucifer's private elevator.

High on irony. Low on surprise.

What _is_ surprising and even more confusing is how they all ended up here. Mum. Amenadiel. Lucifer. The detective.

At least she wasn't supposed to be here. She was supposed to files reports or eat donuts or tuck in the little miscreant. She was not - by all means - supposed to come stumbling right into the world's worst Family Feud.

"Detective, what in the name of Dad are you doing here? Don't you have places to be? Villains to catch?" Lucifer knows that never works with her.

"I thought we could ta..."

"Now's not the best time, I'm afraid. I see you in the morning, yeah?"

He tries. He really does. But trying to hide the soon to be imploding human form of his mother, the not yet Flaming Sword while juggling an enquiring LAPD officer, his suddenly very unhelpful brother... There's only so much even the devil can juggle at once.

"Lucifer, what's going on? What is she doing here?" Chloe points at his mother, at Charlotte.

"Business. We're conducting... business. Now, if you please..."

Of course, Charlotte chooses this very moment to clamp a hand down on Lucifer's shoulder. A hand that's literally glowing. "Son, please... We don't have..."

“Be quiet, will you?” Glowering at his mother has only ever worked so much. Thankfully Amenadiel takes the hint and pulls her off him, trying to shield her cracking body with his. “Detective, please… it’s a private matter.”

“I thought it was business,” Chloe shoots back, eyeing the scene doubtfully.

“A private business matter, yes.”

“Lucifer, we don’t have time for this.”

Lucifer shoots a glare over his shoulder at Amenadiel. “Thank you, Angel Obvious.” Trying to hide the blade behind his back, he takes a step towards Chloe. “Look, let me handle this and we talk, alright? Just… just wait for me downstairs. I’ll be with you in a jiff.” He tries his best to make his voice sound nonchalant as ever but he knows he’s failed when Chloe narrows her eyes, brown knit into a tight frown.

“Detective, if you trust me… at all… you’ll do as I ask?!” It comes as more of a question than an order. “I will explain everything but just this once… let me handle this my way.” Another terribly long beat passes. “Chloe, please…”

Slowly, Chloe nods but doesn’t look convinced. “Okay… I’ll be downstairs… if you need me.” She doesn’t turn around either but actually backs away into the elevator, keeping her eyes fixed on them as she presses the button to go down. Just before the doors slide shut, there’s a flicker of something dark ghosting over her face. Hurt. Disappointment. Again.

Heat sears up Lucifer’s spine.

It takes him a moment to realize it’s not his nerves playing a trick on him like they sometimes seem to do whenever the detective is around. It’s actual heat. The heat that comes from fire. Fire that singes his jacket.

“Lucifer…”

He doesn’t need his mother’s nagging voice to pull his arm from behind his back, the Blade in his hand alight like a torch.

“You did it. You did it, son.”

Lucifer turns around to her. Or what is left of her, her human form in worse shape than ever. Her skin looks like a cracked eggshell, little tears zigzagging over her entire body, the celestial energy too much for the frailty of a mortal body. She’s practically glowing with it, ready to burst and quite possibly tear a good portion of Los Angeles county to pieces along with her.

“Let’s get on with it then, shall we?” A humorless smile tucks at the corner of Lucifer’s mouth. He tries to concentrate on the Sword, the fire around the blade quite literally hotter than hell, almost too bright to look at. It’s oddly fascinatingly, really, watching the flames lazily lick around the length of the otherworldly knife.

“Well?”

“This didn’t exactly come with a manual, mother. I don’t know how to create a…”

“A door,” Amenadiel interrupts him. “You need a door that exists here to open one… up there.”

Both Lucifer and Charlotte stare at him in disbelieve.

“Good thing it only took you a couple millennia to become helpful.” Lucifer looks around his penthouse, cursing the suddenly very inconvenient open floor plan.

Charlotte points at the elevator, her fingertip glowing brightly. “How about that?”

“That might work. In theory,” Amenadiel replies.

Lucifer rolls his eyes at him. “I love your certainty, brother. All right then… here goes nothing.”

He walks over to the elevator and raises the Blade. Just as he is about to plunge it in between the steel door, he hesitates for a second, praying… no, hoping... that the detective as actually gone down to the club and isn’t standing on the other side of that door.

The Sword goes through the steel like… well, like a hot knife through butter but it doesn’t give. It’s stuck, moving neither up nor down, and the doors don’t open either as Lucifer tries to move it.

“Be careful not to break it,” Charlotte warns him, her voice getting fazed and bubbly.

“It’s Azrael's Blade, mother, not a letter opener.”

“Maybe it’s not… hot enough. Can you try harder?”

Lucifer shoots another look at Amenadiel. Whatever compassion his brother had offered him the first time around, it’s was gone now and he’s taking on the accusatory tone of his mother.

He laughs humorlessly. “Believe me, brother, if I knew what it takes you send the two of you home…”

Amenadiel looks at him, surprised for a beat, then he understands. “You’re not coming with us.” it’s not a question.

“What?” Charlotte barks, looking between her sons.

“‘fraid not.” Lucifer shrugs. “And I guess you’re not going anywhere either. I can’t do it. There’s not enough...”

“You were going to abandon us up there?” With whatever energy she has left to operate her human form, Charlotte launches herself at Lucifer, pinning him to the door. “You were going to leave us to your father’s wrath?”

“There is nothing for me up there, Mum.”

“And there is down here?” she asks incredulously.

“Chloe’s here, Mother.” Amenadiel puts a hand on her shoulder, the weight of it enough to make her let go.

“But she’s…”

“I don’t care.” Lucifer shakes his head. Surprisingly, it shuts her up because he is neither willing nor able to listen to whatever slur she might come up with. “I don’t care what she is or isn’t. But what do I care about is whether we… well, if there could be a _we_. And even if not, then I will anything to protect her from whatever Dad’s got planned for her.”

“Why?”

Of course, Charlotte has to ask that. It’s laughable, really, when the answer is so very clear.

“Because I love her.”

Everything happens at once after that.

Everything slows down and accelerates at the same time, becoming fuzzy and crystal sharp in the same instant.

Lucifer’s hand closes around the hilt of the Blade, not by its own will but it’s drawn there by an unearthly power. His fingers ache, pulled too tightly around the grip. His skin burns, set alight by the flames that seem to consume weapon and doorway alike. Energy thrums through his body, nerves strung on the highest note, and he feels himself slipping, unable to hold together his human appearance.

Behind him, the elevator dings with an obnoxious charm and slides open, the non-momentum of everything that’s not-happening almost making him stumble into the glaring light of the cabin. With his free hand, Lucifer has to hold on to the edge of the heavenly doorway, the pull from above stronger than gravity.

Amenadiel speaks to him then, his voice pressing against Lucifer's senses rather his eardrums.

"Are you coming, brother?"

"You know I can't."

The conversation is only in their heads. Talking, moving lips and tongues seems impossible against the magnetic force of Heaven.

"I know." Amidst the gelatinous insanity, Amenadiel looks at him, his expression glum as ever.

"Will you take care of her?" Lucifer nods at Charlotte. Or what is left of her.

Half of her human body has already broken away, her... ends frayed and tethered. The rest of her is aglow with celestial light that seems even brighter than Sword and Pearly Gates combined.

"Of course." Amenadiel almost smiles. "And I will come back."

"Only to haunt me, I hope." Lucifer tries for a smile but that doesn't quite work either.

Charlotte’s not-a-hand brushes his arm then and he flinches. It hurts. Way more than a mother's touch ever should. Especially when she isn't even fully corporeal anymore.

"I'm sorry, son," she says, her voice as blurry as her body. "Will you forgive me?"

Lucifer huffs a laugh. "Give me an eternity to think about that." He pauses briefly. "Maybe I can. One day. But not today."

Charlotte nods. "She is worth it, son. And so are you."

After that, everything goes black. Well, first it gets blindingly bright, heat and light and sound filling the penthouse and every cell of Lucifer’s body. Then it goes black.

 

*

When he comes to again, he finds himself in a heap in the far corner of his apartment, uncomfortably squished against the glass door that leads to his balcony.

It takes him a moment or three to sort his limbs but at least they are still attached to his body and responding to his will. His back hurts from where he’s slammed into various pieces of furniture on the way and there are scorch marks on his hands and forearms where the heavenly fire has burned away his sleeves. His charred fingers dart up to his face which burns like it’s been rubbed down with sandpaper only to flinch away a second later.

A look at his reflection in the glass plain confirm his suspicion. He hasn’t shifted back to his human appearance and is still wearing his actual face.

Usually the process is smooth, it takes only a small effort of will to go from hellishly hideous to Hollywood handsome again. But now...

"Lucifer?!

At the sound of Chloe's voice, Lucifer flinches, the simple physical reflex making him crawl deeper into the shadows.

It never does just rain, doesn't it?

The detective really has the worst timing. This is exactly the kind of 'red handed' he does not want to be caught in.

"Lucifer? Are you here?" she calls again, closer now, sounding worried. "Are you alright? I heard an explosion or something and..."

"I'm... in one piece," he finally responds. If she's already in detective-mode there is no way to make her leave without answering.

She must have followed the sound of his voice for she appears in field of vision only a second later, looking concerned and alert.

"What the hell happened?"

Lucifer scoffs at the irony. "Heaven, actually."

"Are you okay?" She is closing in on him, her steps weary.

"I will be." That he can hope but it buys him time to back away from her. She can't possibly see him like this. "Can’t we talk tomorrow? It's been a rough day."

“Not until you tell me what happened.” There it is… detective-mode.

“Detective, please.” He holds out a hand, trying to make her stay away, but he should have known better.

“What happened to your hand? Are those burn marks?” She already has one hand in her pocket. “That’s it, I’m calling an ambulance.”

“No, you won’t.” If only he would believe it himself. “I will be fine. Nothing a bit of...”

“Come on, this is ridiculous. If you’re hurt, you need to see a doctor. And why are you hiding? I’ve seen you in worse conditions. There’s no need to be af…”

She doesn’t get any further. Mostly because the red flash of Lucifer’s eyes stops her short. That and the low grumble of his voice when he’s no longer unable to control it. “I said… leave!”

“What…” Chloe falls back a little but yet, she stays.

Still crouching in the shadows, his face half hidden behind one arm, Lucifer can almost hear the gears turning in her head.

This wasn’t supposed to happen. He’s not delusional, he knows that it would happen eventually, that she would find out, but not like this. Not without the proper time to explain it to her, to prepare her for it.

Linda hadn’t talked to him for weeks, giving him a glimpse of how people close to him react to his true self. She had been scared, terrified even, and he couldn’t blame her. That eventually she would come around and still see _him_ and not just _that_ face had been a blessing.

Now the detective was about to see. Of course, he’d been telling her all along, never keeping it a secret from her. Who he is. What he is. And still, there was no way for him to know how she would react. Would she scream? Cry? Maybe even shoot him? Would she run away and never speak to him again? That last option was certainly the worst even if he couldn’t blame her.

“From the first time we met…,” Lucifer begins slowly, his voice thankfully back to normal now, “I told you who I was. And I kept telling you even though you wouldn’t believe me. I have never lied to you but… I have kept things from you because… because it scares me to think about how you’d react if you saw…”

“It’s true. Isn’t it?” Chloe interrupts him and he’s almost thankful for it.

“Yes. Yes, it is. I’m the…”

“Don’t. Don’t say it.” She looks at him. Even though she still can’t see him, she looks him directly in the eyes and there’s that expression she gets. He’s seen a hundred times before, with suspects, with Dan, with her daughter even. That look that asks for the truth, demands it and nothing less. “Show me.”

Chloe’s reaction is… not a reaction at all, really. She just stands there, gaze fixed on him as Lucifer gets to his feet and steps out of the shadows. She doesn’t shy away, doesn’t flinch, doesn’t scream, doesn’t even blink.

Her eyes roam over his face, taking in everything, and as she does, she’s stripping him bare of every guard he’s still had up until now. He might as well be naked in front of her and it wouldn’t make much of a difference anymore.

Finally, Chloe breaths and her entire being deflates with it. Her shoulders sag and she closes her eyes, thick tears rolling down her cheeks. She doesn’t make any sounds, just stands there for what feels like half an eternity, silently crying.

Lucifer wants to go to her, console her, but he knows that for one, he’s not good at it and secondly, he isn’t sure if she would let him. So he opts for words, something that is also bound to backfire but he has to do something.

“I’m sorry,” is what he goes for and it feels so wrong that it makes him sick.

“You’re going to have to tell me everything.” Her tone sounds flat, as if she’s not really there.

“Of course.” He would agree to anything if only…

“From the start,” she continues like he hasn’t spoken at all. “No more pretending. I need to know everything.”

“Yes. Anything I…”

“And I’m going to need a drink.”

That he can do. That one is easy.

As he goes to his bar, he makes sure to put enough space between them in order not to crowd and scare her off after all. He pours them both a drink and turns to find her sitting on the couch, still not quite together yet.

“There you go.” Lucifer puts the glass down in front of her instead of handing it to her, then sits down opposite of her. “What would you like to know?”

Chloe looks up briefly as she reaches for her glass, downs the drink in one go, making it unmistakably clear that she does want to - needs to - know everything.

“Right then… from the start it is.”

He tells her everything.

About creation. The family. The rebellion. The fall. Hell.

About his mother. His decision to take a break from it all. His life in LA. Meeting Chloe.

For a moment he thinks about leaving out the part about her being put there by his father but decides against it. No more pretending.

She takes it well, all things considering. Maybe it’s her being a cop and used to all sorts of stories, maybe it’s just because of her being… well, special. She doesn’t ask questions, though, just lets him talk. Somewhere along his tale, he feels himself shifting back to his human face and that actually takes her by surprise.

He ends on tonight, how he’s actually managed to open the Gates of Heaven and how his mother and brother had one through with him staying behind.

“You left out something,” is the first thing Chloe says in a long while. Her eyes are red, tired, and she keeps rubbing her shoulders as if she’s cold.

“There’s nothing else.” For a moment, the old fear is back, the fear that he might lose her forever.

“What you said before the… explosion. Why you stayed here.” She swallows. “Was that true?”

“Everything I’ve told you is the truth. And nothing but.”

“So tell me.”

Shifting to the edge of his seat, Lucifer tries to get a hint of how she’s going to react but her face is guarded and still frighteningly distanced.

The words are the easiest and the hardest he has to tell her. “I love you.”

She nods slowly.

“And I’m sorry,” he continues. “I know I’ve let you down. Again. And I understand if that can’t be repaired. So if you… wait, you heard that?"

She looks up briefly, the flicker of a smile tucking at her mouth. "I didn't go down to the club. I only went down two floors and then came back up the stairs. I was eavesdropping."

"Aren't you a sneaky little..." Luifer stops himself but it does feel could to have come this far again. Instead, he clears his throat and continues with a: "Why?"

"For one, Charlotte Richards. I never trusted her. There was always something off about her. At least now I know what it was. And secondly... you never call me by my name. So when you did, I knew something was wrong." She shrugs. "I snuck back up and listened to your conversation and to... to what you said. And the explosion. I came in right after that."

"Well, I'm glad you did."

"Are you?" she challenges.

"It's certainly not the way I would've liked for you to find out," he admits.

"Why did you never show me? I mean, you kept telling me but I..."

"You thought it was just... an act?"

"I wanted to, yeah. I guess I wanted to believe it was just some... metaphor or something to cover your..."

"Daddy issues?" he provides, catching himself - and her - smiling just a little. It's the best thing that's happened tonight. "Most people who see... me... they run away screaming. Some literally go insane. I couldn't... bear the thought that you might... that it would break you."

"So instead you break my heart by disappearing for weeks and come back pretending to be married?"

Guilty as charged. "I thought it was for the best." His mood falters again. "If you need me to stay away from you I..."

Chloe holds up a hand, cutting him off. "You see, that's just it. I might _need_ you to stay away to try and understand all of this but... I don't _want_ you to. Because for once... everything makes sense."

"It does?"

"Yes, I mean it's totally insane but... It makes sense. All the stuff that's happened, the things you said... my feelings for you."

Lucifer's mouth goes dry and he can't look at her. "Feelings that aren't real. Feelings that you were made to feel."

She shakes her head and there is that smile again. "I think you're wrong."

"I don't understand. I told you that my father..."

"If this was a case, what would be the first question to ask?"

Her question takes him aback. "You ask the questions, Detective. I only make the cunning remarks."

She ignores him. "I would ask why?"

Lucifer scoffs. "Believe me, that's a question my father never answers."

"But you said it yourself, God doesn't have a plan. Why would he now? What's the point?" She shifts to the edge of her seat. Detective-mode. "Amenadiel blessing my mother just so that I would fall in love with you? When he wouldn't even know you'd eventually quit hell? And what about my dad? Everything that's happened since? That's one too many coincidences if you ask me."

"Well, he does work in mysterious ways." He tries not to focus on the 'falling in love'-part.

"But people don't," Chloe continues. "They do a lot of things for a lot of reasons or no reason at all. I don't believe that God makes them do anything. And I sure as hell don't believe that me love you just for kicks."

"That's very admirable of you and in fact it's quite charming that you'd try to convince yourself you actually... felt that way. Oh and a good pun, too, but..."

"Why are you so adament to convince that it's not real?"

"Because it scares me." Why he gets loud he doesn't know. Why she doesn't flinch he doesn't understand. When he continues, his voice is very small. "It's the first time that I ever... felt this way. I didn't think it was possible for me to..." He gestures between them. "And that's bloody terrifying."

Chloe smiles, this time more to herself than at him. "Then it's very much real." She clears her throat. "Look, I'm not saying that I can just... go back to normal. Because this obviously isn't. I will need some time to process all of this but... if I've actually been put in your path... I want to know why. And the only way to figure it our is together. You and me."

Lucifer finds himself matching her smile. "Because we're partner."

She nods. "Because we're partners."

"Then how do we go about it? I've long since given up asking questions in that direction."

Chloe shrugs. "I have no idea. But you can start by pouring me another drink."


End file.
